BANGKOK, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Three bomb blasts that injured five people, including a suspect in Bangkok, were intended to harm "foreign nationals," Thailand's police chief said.
The Bangkok Post reported police Chief Priewpan Damapong did not provide details, but said Thais were not the targets of Tuesday's blasts in a busy area of the capital -- one day after attacks targeting Israeli Embassy personnel in India and Georgia. The incident in Georgia was averted with the discovery of the explosive device before it was detonated, but the attack on an Israeli Embassy vehicle in New Delhi wounded four people, including the wife of the Israeli defense attache.
In Bangkok, the Post said five people were injured, including a man carrying an Iranian passport who lost at least one of his legs when a grenade he was trying to toss at police exploded near him.
Another person, also reported to be holding an Iranian passport, was arrested at Bangkok airport as he was getting ready to leave for Malaysia, the report said.
CNN quoted Thai government spokeswoman Thitima Chaisaeng as saying Iranian documents were found on the injured suspect, who remained at a hospital.
The United States and Britain renewed travel warnings for their nationals after the blasts, the Post reported.
Israel blamed the New Delhi and Tbilisi attacks on Iran, which has denied the charges.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was visiting Singapore, told The Jerusalem Post, "The attempted terror attack in Thailand proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to operate in the ways of terror and the latest attacks are an example of that."
The wounded suspect threw a grenade at a taxi after the driver failed to stop to pick him up, the Bangkok Post said. The man then tried to toss a grenade at approaching police but the device fell next to him and exploded.
The others injured were Thai bystanders, police said.
The man arrested at the airport refused to make any statement to police, the report said. A third suspect was being sought.
Police said they found explosives planted in two radio receivers at a house where the first explosion occurred.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States condemned the Bangkok blasts.
"What I would say is that, with regard to this bombing, the incidents in Delhi, incidents in Georgia, while we will await the results of the investigations, these events do come on the heels of other disrupted attacks targeted at Israel and Western interests, including an Iranian-sponsored attack in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a Hezbollah-linked attack in Bangkok, Thailand, before this," Nuland said.
"So they serve as a reminder that a variety of states and non-state actors continue to view international terrorism as a legitimate foreign policy tool, which we consider reprehensible."
